Resources for Book Suggestions

Last week’s Reference Question was about me finding a new source for suggesting good books for patrons - the Mass Book Awards.

Liz’s comment on the post was a good one, and I thought it warranted a bit of research and a full post devoted to answering it. She said:

There are a few websites which allow you to enter some of your favorite bands and it pops out suggestions of similar bands you might like - wouldn’t it be awesome if they had a site like that for books?…

Here are some resources I found that let you search for a book/author you like, and then link from it to similar books:

• WhatShouldIReadNext.com - search for a book to see recommendations
• reader2.com - search for a book to see recommendations; also shows tags associated with each book
• AllReaders.com - search for a title or author, and similar books are listed at the end of each book description; also allows searching by plot, setting, or character
• StoryCode.com - lets you search for a title or author and suggests similar stories (based on user data); also has other features
• LibraryThing.com - offers book suggestions based on user-entered tags; you can also browse tags for books on a certain subject, or use their unsuggester to find books unlike a particular book
• GoodReads.com - seems a lot like LibraryThing, but puts more emphasis on recommendations of people in your friends network rather than cumulative data
• NoveList - the old standby, but you probably need to go through your local library for it
• Amazon.com - it is Amazon, so it’s primary focus is to sell book, not recommend them, but it does offer suggestions based on what people purchase and search by topic (as it were)

There are lots of other sites devoted to book suggestions. A few others I found that didn’t fit above but that are also useful are:

• Listal.com Books - search (hidden in upper right corner) for books and link to others via tags (seems to focus more on social connections)
• FictionFinder from OCLC - offers Subject cloud (like tag cloud) to find similar books; also allows searching, and each book has links to see other books with the same subjects, genres, characters or setting
• Find a Good Book from Hennepin County Library - search for an author to find recommended reading lists where that author’s books appear (plus links to other listings and resources)
• Staff Recommendations from the Skokie Public Library - search for a subject to find books their staff has reviewed and recommends

And here’s a few resources that are list-based - you click the subject you like, and you browse the list of books in that subject:

• If You Like… by the Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand - read-a-likes lists by book, author, or subject
• Oprah Read-A-Likes by the Wakefield Library - lists Oprah’s Picks books, and books similar to them
• What do I read Next? by the Manchester Library - click on the topic or genre to see a list of books
• Themed Booklists by Overbooked.com - has a short listing of books and authors with links to similar books, but also has many other resources in their booklists and readers advisory sections
• StopYoureKillingMe.com - just mystery books, browse by author or category to find similar books
• GenreFluent.com - lists of books by subject or genre (use links on the left)
• Nancy Pearl Recommendations - recommendations by subject from Nancy Pearl’s books, in her wiki
• Webrary from the Morton Grove Public Library - book lists by subject and genre
• Mostly Fiction Book Lists by the Waterboro Public Library - links to lists of book lists, by subject
• Readers Advisory Link Farm - large list of links to lists of suggestion books

I’m sure there are tons of others - even my library also has a readers advisory webpage. If I missed one of your favorites, please share it with a comment below.

See Also

• Reference Question of the Week - 2/3/08
• Readers Advisory Ideas
• Another Announcement from OverDrive
• Reference Question of the Week - 2/17/08
• Kid Book Reviews on StoryTubes

Posted under Books, Library, Resources | 4 Comments »

Reference Question of the Week - 2/3/08

This week’s question is one heard often:

“do you have any suggestions for a good book?”

Librarians either love of hate this question. I’ve talked about various readers advisory tools (and the old standard, NoveList), but I learned of a new one this week.

On Thursday, I went to the Massachusetts State House to attend the presentation of the 2008 Massachusetts Book Awards (photos).

Each year, the Massachusetts Center for the Book evaluates hundreds of entrants in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and childrens books, and selects a winner and two honorees in each category.

Part of the criteria is that the author is a Massachusetts resident or the work in some way is significant to Massachusetts. Their website has the list of this year’s winners as well as winners from past years, and I think this is a great resource for readers advisory. This year’s books included Nathaniel Philbrick (Mayflower), Noam Chomsky (Failed States), and Martín Espada (The Republic of Poetry), among others, so these aren’t local interest-only works.

What I also liked is that the Massachusetts Center for the Book is part of the Library of Congress‘ Center for the Book program. Which means, not only can I refer patrons to these few Massachusetts, but there are 49 other state programs, all evaluating and highlighting significant books.

I’ve used the Center for the Book for other things, but never the award winner lists for readers advisory. So not only was it a fun trip to Boston, but I learned something, too.

See Also

• Resources for Book Suggestions
• Reference Question of the Week - 3/23/08
• Reference Question of the Week - 2/17/08
• New Massachusetts Library Directory
• Reference Question of the Week - 11/4/07

Posted under Books, Library, Reference Question | 1 Comment »